“If only”……………
 

The new Wal- Mart Super Center was situated across the Turnpike from Magnolia Plaza in the St. John’s open area at Meggison and Warm Springs/Morse Ave………….it would be ACCESSIBLE by Golf Cart! (And closer to all with limited shopping choices in the far south regions).

I suspect that area is too small and not accessible enough from 44.

I'm surprised there has been no hint of golf cart access to the new location on 44. It's hard to believe there never will be access but it isn't clear how it could happen.

It would be Walmart that would consider golf cart access at their cost. Why would they? They know they’re gonna draw crowds no matter what mode of transportation. If I’m going to new 44 Walmart I’m buying fuel for the car. Otherwise my shopping arrives at my front door.

Neighborhood Walmart may have 10-15% golf carts in the parking lot. So either shoppers are traveling far enough that they need a car or they’re buying stuff that won’t travel well on a golf cart.
My guess is shopping at the new Walmart that carries everything not just groceries on 44 will be like shopping at Costco. You usually need a car.

As it is on Villages property (or property sold by the Villages and surrounded by Villages property) I am surprised the Villages is not providing access to it. They would do this either as an incentive for Walmart to build in that location or to facilitate residents getting to other businesses that are sure to build on the remainder of the Villages land around the Walmart.

Not all Villagers have golf carts and not all those that do have one utilize it for shopping. What you see as a low number of carts I see as 10% - 15% of the customers who might not shop there if there is no golf cart access.
- We shop at Aldi's far less than we shop at Winn-Dixie just across the street
- When we shop at Walmart we take our cart to 466 even though the one out on 441 is closer.
- I now take my business to the Jersey Mike's in Lake Deaton plaza - I can get there by cart
- I really like Culver's but rarely go there since it is not accessible by cart.
- I DOUBT I AM THE ONLY ONE

On the other hand - if these things were important to you (being able to get to things by golf cart), you probably would've selected a home in an area that already had that kind of access. There are no rules forbidding people from tearing down old homes and building new ones in their place. That happens fairly often here on the Historic side. They take away the single or double-wide, and build a home on a foundation with a real garage, block and stucco construction, etc. It seems every few months there is one just being finished, or one just starting.

I can access the doctors, dentists, hospital, Walmart, Aldi's, Publix, Winn Dixie, the golf cart service shop, full service restaurants, town squares, Wendy's, other fast food joints, Jersey Mike's, Moe's, the post office, the police department, the fire department, department stores, Lowe's, Xfinity and AT&T stores, all within 8 minutes from my house, by golf cart. I can access Culver's, Fresh Market, and everything else on Wedgewood by Southern Trace within 40 minutes by golf cart. I can get to Brownwood and Sawgrass by golf cart (though it's far and I rarely do that).

And anyone living anywhere in-between my house and the furthest distance I've mentioned here, has access to everything in-between.

When you choose an area that doesn't have what you actually WANT, and merely hope to have it built eventually and accessible the way you want it to be, you take your chances that it'll never happen. Your complaint would be to yourself, for not choosing otherwise.

Nice information but you have COMPLETELY misunderstood my position. I can get to everything I need to get to....today...by cart. I don't have a complaint.

I have an observation that some people (myself included) prefer to travel by cart and business that are not cart accessible are not patronized by them. For me, the new Walmart will be one. I will continue to travel by cart to 466 for all my Walmart needs.

Brownwood and Sawgrass are far and so you rarely go there? Okay, the Paradise gate for me is far and so I rarely go there. I bet you don't get to Edna's or Reveille cafe very often... I don't get to Aldi's very often (I've been to Culver's on 466, I was thinking of the 466A location earlier). We each have our burdens to bear.

I don't think you'll see golf cart access to the NEW Walmart unless you live in Continental Country Club. Of the three other corners at the intersection only one has Golf Cart access. The side facing Chitty Chatty is wetlands...

Also, I wonder how much longer the Neighborhood Walmart will stay there once this opens. I have to believe they might be getting tired of paying what they do for that space....

At some point a few turning lanes would help.

Even though it is on Villages property, said property is "landlocked" by non-Villages properties. So, it should be no surprise at all...

No more “landlocked” than the historic side or Bridgeport at Miona Shores.

I’m surprised, but I don’t see an easy way to add access. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in a year or so.

Pretty sure the golf cart accessibility was established before Walmart signed the lease and started building.
To them, apparently golf cart access isn’t important.

I rarely go there by golf cart. I do go to both on occasion though. I go to lots of places I can't get to (legally) by golf cart. McDonald's, the taqueria on 301, Home Depot and Panda Express, Kohl's and Ulta, Chipotle, Best Buy, Papa John's, Brooklyn Water Bagels, my dermatologist and my periodontist, and so on. When I want to go somewhere, I'll go there. If I can't get there by golf cart or don't feel like driving by cart, I'll get there by car. It's not a deal-breaker to me, because I have so many options either way. That's the point I was trying to make. If "being able to get to a place by golf cart" is IMPORTANT - then you'd move to a neighborhood where you could get to that place by golf cart.

The "Historic Side" has it's own bridge over 441which gives it access to the rest of TV...

That bridge serves multiple communities, giving them access to the newer sections of TV.

Are you suggesting they spend $$$Millions of dollars, just so golf carts can get to Walmart?

When I moved here there was one golf cart bridge and now there are five. Things change.

I am suggesting exactly what I have suggested twice already: I am surprised a retail area is being built without golf cart access but I don’t see an easy way to add it. We’ll have to wait a year or two to see if something changes. (and there are four ways to add golf cart access of which a bridge is only one)

Trust me they don't need the few extra dollars from people using shopping carts, they're going to do multi-million dollars on a heavily Access road like route 44 not just from villagers but from people like me who live in communities down the road instead of going to the one in Leesburg or The neighborhood Walmart

I think the only way to add access would be a tunnel from the area by the softball fields under 44. Would be quite an undertaking though.

What’s Walmart?

I do not allow a golf cart to determine my home location or lifestyle. It is a fun toy but I go everywhere with my car and get there faster and get anything I wish with the storage to bring it home with the comforts of air, heat and windshield wipers.I also enjoy seeing the new developments in the south. Nothing is “too far.” It’s a big world.

This reminds me of some people I knew when I lived in the pleasant city of Lincoln, Nebraska. It was just a twenty minute walk to downtown with its restaurants, bars, and stores. The university’s cultural events were there: museum, opera, concerts. In another direction they were a five minute walk to a grocery store. In another direction they could walk to church. In the winter they didn’t have to shovel much snow or drive in it very often. But they really wanted to live on a small farm and have some animals, even though weren’t farmers. So they bought a little farm on a gravel road about a thirty minute drive south of where they lived before. It wasn’t long before they began agitating for more stores to be built close to them. It was so inconvenient having to drive so far to go out to eat or shop. My friend had owned a music store on the main street of town. He sold it and became a realtor selling commercial property. In ten years he managed to get some restaurants and stores built within ten minutes drive of his prairie farm. His gravel county road was paved. Developers bought land around him and put up a couple hundred fancy houses. The neighbors were too far away to get to know. The family joined the country club. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, as Joni Mitchell sang.

Wallmart is smart they wont rent from the villages

For a couple of years, there was a large "Property Available" sign in the corner of the new Wal-Mart property at Morse & SR44. In large letters, the sign proclaimed the parcel to be "golf cart accessible."

Perhaps they should have added the word "potentially" to that statement, but apparently Wal-Mart did not consider that a priority. It could, however, be done.

A bridge would be out of the question...too expensive. But, a tunnel under SR44, coming from the area of the Soaring Eagle complex, would make sense. The Developer has easy and abundant access to the concrete tunnel sections, but it would require some disruption to traffic flow on SR44...not to mention the requisite approvals from the State of Florida. My bet is you'll never see golf cart access there.

For me it will cut the travel time more than in half as I currently drive to the Walmart on 466 and the new Walmart is much closer on 44!

If if's and buts were candy and nuts, everyday would be Christmas

It is being built by Lake Deaton, not by St Johns. It is by the Villages greenhouses and the Continental Country Club community, and effectively across the street (44) from the Lake Deaton RV Park. The Rohan Rec Center is quite close, across 44 also.

That area by St Johns is too small for a Walmart. There is a new church to be built in that basic area.

I've got Walmart+. It is wonderful. I go online, select what I want, the time I want it, and they deliver it to me. For free, I just leave a tip for the driver.

Right now it comes out of Leesburg, but once the new Walmart is built, I suspect it will come out of there. Even faster.

In addition to free delivery, I get Paramount+ for free, cheaper gas at Mobil and Exxon stations, and right now they have a promo for 50 cents off per gallon and you can add Showtime to Paramount+ for six months, for free.

I suspect I will go to the new Walmart a few times just to look at it, but after that, I'll just order what I want.

If you hate traffic, like I do, it's a great solution.

If you have to tip the driver, delivery is not free. The cost of delivery is whatever fees are being charged by the vendor (Walmart in this example), third party service (like Door Dash), plus tip.

Do you tip your Amazon drivers? If not, why would you tip your Walmart drivers? I get tipping the pizza delivery guy, but beyond that, just NO.

AITA?

Kroger, Amazon, UPS, FedEx are employees of the company drive company vehicles. Walmart delivery drives their own cars, just like the pizza guy you tip.

On the other hand, not all Villagers typically have a car, and when they do, they prefer to do their shopping via golf cart. We frequently don’t have a car and do just fine getting everything we need with one of our golf carts. I suppose that would be more difficult living in some other areas within the bubble.

For many Villagers, being able to do just about anything
via golf cart is a very important part of their overall lifestyle experience.

Pretty sure that "Golf Cart Accessible" sign was (and still is) posted on commercial property for sale where Buena Vista crosses 44...

Still there in google maps Street View. Obviously an old picture.

Sure not talking about 466A? One on 466 in Oxford pretty far from 44 area?

With the prospect of 44 widening…
 

There are more prominent concerns for Villagers. Eventually 44 will be widened impacting those who are used to using the Chitty Chatty Bridge (look no farther than what they did to 54). Most of you should have noticed the “no need” Villages signage constructed this past month on the corner of Morse and 44 (to stake a claim), but you can only hold back eminent domain for so long. I highly doubt a bridge to Walmart is priority at this point. It will be interesting to see the results of the traffic study started last month, the results will be reported on in June.

The Culver's on 466A is not golf cart accessible. I would like to go there but I rarely use my car so it is usually not an option..

The Culver's on 466 is about 11 miles (45 mins) away. I'm up in that area regularly and have stopped at that Culver's a couple of times.

That's a valid point I had not considered. But it doesn't change my perception of the situation.

How much stuff can you fit in the golf cart to make it worthwhile to go to Walmart?🤷🏼*♂️

Culver’s accessible by golf cart on 466 in Wedgwood.

Please see my post #34 in response to your post #32

Plans underway for massive ‘store of the future’ in The Villages of Florida - gulflive.com Plans underway for massive ‘store of the future’ in The Villages of Florida - gulflive.com


Trying to figure out where this is . Breaking Ground on New Walmart - Talk of The Villages Florida Breaking Ground on New Walmart - Talk of The Villages Florida

Faster, and cooler in the summer, drier in the winter, and totally safer. Not to mention windshield wipers!